For my Sunday ride I was looking for a good option, Austin Cycling Association (ACA) had 2 rides the Krause Kruze and the Pfinally Pfluggerville. The Krause Kruze promises a lot of hills so of course I was very interested in this one. However, I've been having some shifting problems and while I've been doing some intervals this week on the 3 sisters the chain would slip. I figured until I could get it into the shop I shouldn't go out of my way for hills. That left the Pfinally Pfluggerville. The start location turned out to be relatively quick to get to via 45, about 20 minutes from my house so that was an added bonus. To put the route into perspective it is billed as flat to slightly rolling farmland. I have ridden on a few of the same roads we would be hitting during the Ronde Von Manda race.
At the ride start there were quite a few people, one of the more attended ACA rides I'd been too. Most everybody was doing the 47 mile route, I on the other hand wanted to throw down the 67 mile route at a steady pace of 70% of my FTP so about a 20 mph pace. There was one other rider doing the 67 mile route and he was going to be going slower, but said he'd try to keep up. The 47 and 67 mile routes ride the same route for about 25 miles, the 67 mile route takes about a 3 mile diversion before the water stop in Coupland.
After a 15 minute warmup with the group I picked up the pace and quickly dropped the guy who was doing the 67 mile route with me as well as everyone else. Not that it matters but the other 67 miler was a Tri guy. I would look back at turns to see where everyone was at. It appeared that the ride was splitting into 3 groups, a faster 18-19 mph group a medium group and a slower group, not sure how fast the last 2 groups were going. Then there was me off the front. Since I was off the front by myself I figured I'd get in a good session of sweet spot training in. I concentrated at holding my power at 90% of my FTP for the next hour. At this point I rode away from the group and instead of being a 2-4 minutes ahead of the fast group I was getting 3 or 4 miles ahead. I didn't see them again till Coupland at the watering hole.
When I was pulling into Coupland the 47 miler fast group was just getting into the gas station that was the pit stop. The other 67 miler said he was going to only do the 47 mile route. I decided to join them on the 47 mile route so I could get back home a little earlier, plus I wasn't sure if there was any water stops on the rest of the 67 mile route and it was getting hot and I knew only 2 bottles wouldn't cut it. It was fun to ride with them, I knew one of them and had ridden with Bruce several times on Sunday with the Austin Road Riders group. I chatted with the Tri guy who was suppose to do the 67 miler. In fact I rode with he and his wife on another ACA ride, the Perdenales Pedal (not the same Tri guy from that ride though).
There was no organization to the paceline, for the most part we rode 2 up with 6 or 7 in our group. There really was no sharing of the work, whoever was at the front would be up there pulling for however long they felt, The hills would reshuffle everyone. I tried to keep my speed constant at 19-20 mph so i was the first one up and would soft pedal till we regrouped. I would try to pull as much as I could and I think I did a good job of pulling everyone at a 20 mph pace.
At mile 44 as we were going down a small hill (29 mph) the tri guy goes flying by me. Instinct takes over and I'm like oh hell no. I kick it in and grab his wheel. I start to pass him as we start up the next roller and then I go into overdrive and fly up the hill and totally leave him in the dust. At the top I think how big of an ass I must have looked and felt a little bad.
When we got back to the parking lot as I was putting my bike away one of the guys that was in our group came over and introduced himself. He asked if I was on a club or team and said how inspiring it was to watch me ride away from everybody at the beginning and to watch me ride up the hills. That made my day so I stopped feeling bad about chasing down the tri guy.
The course is really good, very low traffic once you get out of Pfluggerville, which takes about 5 minutes. I would recommend this ride through the rural farmland. And it is flat, I used my small ring once or twice and that was only to stay within a power target zone. I rolled with standard cranks and a 11x23 cassette no problem. It is a fun route.
Yesterday was my 2nd "official" run at the 8 mile Time Trial and I recorded my fastest time. Last week I did a practice run and was a bit disappointed as my time was slower by 5 seconds and I totally died around mile 6. My speed dropped to below 20 mph, but luckily I got my second wind and was able to finish somewhat strong. Looking at the data it appeared I did a poor job of pacing as I went out too hard from the beginning. WIth that in mind I made every effort to do a better job of pacing.
Last nights TT was the first time with my new aero bars that I got for Fathers Day. The theory is the aero bars will get the rider into a more aerodynamic position thus cutting through the wind. The amount of watts to propel the bike is suppose to go down as the drag coefficient is reduced. That's the theory anyway.
It was a hot one, still in the 100s when I got to the veloway. I warmed up with 2 laps around the veloway, the first at a moderate pace and the 2nd lap in the small ring with high cadence. This was my second ride of the day, during lunch I went out for an easy 40 minutes. A couple weeks ago when I did my first TT I followed this protocol of riding during my lunch time for a light effort. Last week when I had trouble I did not do my lunch ride as I thought the effort might hinder me. Going forward I'll keep the easy lunch spin in the game plan as at the least it doesn't seem to contribute to any negative effects.
Besides the aero bars I also tried one other new piece of equipment. Instead of a standard water bottle I used my CamelBak RaceBak. Even though the race is only 8 miles in the extreme heat I need to take a drink every 2 miles. With the bottle I have to fumble around getting it in and out. Not a big issue but when every second counts it's a lot easier to drink from the RaceBak than a bottle. With the RaceBak I noticed I was able to get in a couple more drinks than with the bottle. With the bottle I strickly followed my 2 mile hydration plan, but the RaceBak seemed to not disrupt the pace so I was able to get in more drinks when I needed it on the back side of the course on the return.
My power was down by 10 watts on this attempt compared to the previous. However I averaged .3 mph faster this time at 23.8 mph. There would appear to be something to this less drag thing. I think my pacing was pretty good, I finished with nothing left in the tank. On the hills in the 1st 1/2 of the race I made a conscious effort to hold back a bit, keeping my power in check until almost to the top and then I would raise my power and effort to crest the top and be able to catch my breath on the other side. I passed 2 riders again this time. The first rider around mile 2 and the second one was in my sights from the turn around point. I finally passed him within the last mile. Having him as my carrot was probably the real reason I beat my time as it gave me the motivation to keep pushing on. I was surprised I didn't get passed again because as I was starting there were 5-7 people at the light waiting to turn left onto the course and they looked serious with full TT rigs, skin suits and aero helmets. Catching the last guy was quite gratifying as he was on a TT bike with aero helmet.
My official time is 20:11.90 and averaged 23.8 mph. That's a whopping 24 second difference in my previous fastest time! I'm still amazed that I was able to cut that much time off my ride while having a lower power average. There's probably more tweaking that can be made to my TT position. I slapped the aerobars on and adjusted my seat back a little and played with the angle a bit for comfort. Looking at the guys riding full on TT bikes their seats seem higher which appears to flatten their backs out thus giving them a more aerodynamic position.
Results page
A father in my son's Jack's cub scout den, Ken, a fellow cyclist invited me out to the VOIP Saturday group ride. He meets the group in front of Rudy's BBQ on Hwy 360. On Friday night I emailed Ken saying I was on for the ride. We didn't have a set plan, I knew he left his house at 6:15 as he rides down from Cedar Park. I tried to get to his house at 6:15 to meet him, but I got there a little late at 6:19. I checked my email and saw that he emailed me to meet him at the corner of El Salido and 620 at 6:25. There was no way I could get there in 5 minutes but I took off. I got there at 6:29 but no sign of Ken. I wasn't sure if he was running late so I waited till 6:40.
Running this far behind I couldn't take my normal route to 360, I was going to have to take a direct route. Ken said he takes 2222 to 360, I've never went down the big hill on 2222, in fact it is something I vowed I would never do. Riding along side cars going 65-80 mph with no shoulder never appealed to me. Although the shoulder was widened last year on the stretch approaching the hill, but the decent down the hill you still have to take the lane. Luckily it was early morning still and the car traffic was light. I bombed down the hill reaching 50 mph and thankfully not one car passed me.
I still had to navigate 360 and climb the hills. It was going to be close as to whether or not I would make it to the rendezvous point by 7:30am. I passed quite a few cyclists on the hills and I was passed by one rider as well. This guy looked the part on his Cervelo and matching kit. He was an older gentleman with graying hair, wafer thin. He was probably 5'6" and 135 pounds. I debated if I should grab his wheel, but I was already teetering on my red line and figured I'd be completely blown if I did.
I got to Rudy's at 7:35 and luckily Ken and a small group was waiting but the damage had been done, I'd spent the past hour going full throttle to get there on time that I was spent. I would guess there were about 18 people in the group as we rolled down 360 heading to MoPac. This version of the Dam Loop is probably a bit closer to the classic version as it goes down Southwest Parkway to 71 and down 71 to Bee Caves. I've never ridden this portion of the Dam Loop. I typically will go up Bee Caves Road to Bee Cave and I've never ridden on 71. I was a bit skeptical about it as I wasn't sure how big the shoulder was. For the most part it is quite rideable I think there was only one short bridge section where I felt it to be a bit questionable.
Back to the ride. As we hit the longer climb up Southwest Parkway, before Barton Springs Road my legs were already protesting. We hit this hill maintaining 20 mph going up. Close to the top the speed knocked up a mile or two and I couldn't counter. I slowly drifted off the back, but kept the main group in sight. The group was already split in 2, the main group that I just got dropped from and then another group. I was between the 2. I rode by myself to Bee Caves picking off a few riders here and there that got dropped from the main group.
I also got dropped on 620, after a light of all places. We stop at the light and I'm expecting a slow roll out, so I'm not paying close attention, getting clipped in. I look up and everybody has taken off. I did catch up to the 2nd group and rode with them down 620 to the next regroup stop at the Walgreens on the corner of 620 and 2222.
The home stretch was fairly mild as we rode 620 to Anderson Mill Road. Ken and me departed from the group from there as they turned down Anderson Mill to head back to 360 and we headed the opposite direction into Cedar Park.
Next time I will have to roll to the start at a better pace so I'm not shelled before I arrive. Looking at my overall power file my average watts were below what I expected. The entire ride only averaged 201 watts. That could be partly do to sitting in at the back of the group. But looking at key efforts the average was still below what I would have thought. The effort felt harder than what the file indicates.
Stats:
Distance: 56.73
Kj: 2202
Power: Avg: 201 Max: 849
Growing up on the Eastern side of Washington State in rural Chattaroy, outside of Spokane, we had many hills to ride bikes on growing up. The rural area we lived in provided a vast playground of roads that my friends and myself would ride on for hours on end. I recently mapped a few of my known routes that we rode to see how far we rode in any particular day and the average was about 6-8 miles with some 15-20 mile adventures thrown in as I got older. When I was 10 - 12 years old these all day rides seemed long and epic, it gave me a little chuckle to see how low the mileage actually was.
There was one hill in particular that us neighborhood kids would test ourselves on. It was sort of a right of passage to try and get up the hill without having to stop or walk up. I'm not sure what the grade of the hill on Buck Brush was, in the winter after a snow it was typically undrivable and would be closed for sledding. We also called it the Water Tower Hill, you can probably image why. Looking back I have several fond memories of riding up that hill. It was the quickest route to Owens Pond where I'd frequently go to fish. Imagine riding up this hill with my fishing pole. A lot of my friends would go around the hill to avoid it and meet me at the top. One other memory is when my Uncle Kenny came to visit and I talked him into going to Owens Museum with me one evening. I rode my bike while he walked. From then on he always talked about how he almost died walking up the Water Tower hill and how far this little jaunt was (actually only 2 miles).
Last night Jack and me went over to the Twin Creeks circuit and did 1 lap to warm up and then we went down the Twin Creeks hill. His eyes were wide as we descended the hill. At the bottom we discussed his strategy of getting back up, he was worried about getting to the top. I let him know that it was ok to stop and catch his breath. I've seen a lot of adults need to stop on the hill and I've seen grown adults walk their bikes up it as well so if he had to stop there was no shame in it. Off he went. After his first stop I told him to pick out a marker up the hill and ride to that spot. It took him 4 rest stops to get to the top and I might be a proud father but I must say his form looked a lot better than a lot of people I see on it. A lot of people are weasing and out of breath as they fight their way to the top. He on the other hand paced himself and didn't seem to burn any matches.
He was quite proud of himself to get to the top and he set a goal to ride to the top without stopping by the end of the summer. I'm pretty sure the Twin Creeks hill is steeper than my Water Tower hill and it is a bit longer .5 compared to .22 miles. Be on the look out for updates on his progress!
On Saturday I was scheduled for a 1 1/2 hour easy spin so what better way to accomplish this then with 2 junior cyclists. Jack, Ethan and myself with our bikes loaded on the bike rack made our way over to Brushy Creek Park and caught the ACA Family ride. The route was 5.5 miles on the new hike/bike path from the Brushy Creek Park to the YMCA. There were quite a few riders joining us, about 14 riders in all. The boys had a good time they did comment on how slow we went, especially up the hills.
Sunday I opted out of the Southwest Cycle Sport group ride because on Thursday I somehow pinched a nerve or something in my back and breathing heavy was a little problematic. Since the route scheduled was hills I didn't think the sharp pain when I started to breath heavy would be wise. Instead I put together a route down Parmer up to Andice. Instead of just going straight down Parmer I mapped a route that would take me on 2 different offshoots that I hadn't cycled down.
The first deviation was turning right on County Road 258. This road will take you down to Camp Tejas and across a little creek. CR 258 is 2.7 miles long and fairly secluded passing through pastures on both sides. CR 258 comes out on 3405. A left turn will take you back to Parmer, but I opted to go right towards Georgetown. I stayed on 3405 for the next 4 miles. As I was about to turn left onto Ridgewood Road my front tire went flat. I pulled over and placed my bike under a big tree to get out of the sun. As I got the wheel off the bike my leg was getting bitten by baby fire ants!. They were all over my left leg. I had to find another spot to change the flat. Ridgewood connects Andice Road (2338). I then headed down 2338 back towards Parmer. I headed south on Parmer, but only for .2 miles and then took an immediate right on CR 246.
CR 246 is another detour to Andice that I have never had a chance to ride on before. It's another off the beaten path road that runs parallel to 2338. It intersects 2338 when it turns back on itself. I rode into Andice to the general store. When I pulled into the parking lot there were a couple bikes there and a couple taking a break as well. They had purchased a gallon of water and offered me to top off my bottles. Don and Janet backed up the claim on the sign outside of the general store that they had if not the World's Best Hamburger one of the better ones. I might have to make a burger run sometime to see how that claim holds up. After a short break I showed off into the wind.
On the way back I went on CR 254 and then onto CR 255 and CR 269 back to Parmer. I had one more deviation on Parmer instore. I like to turn right on CR 258. This little diversion adds an extra 4 1/2 miles. I typically will see deer on this section of the route especially down by the creek. This twist is good when the wind is blowing on Parmer as the tree coverage does give a little relief. The only down side is the road past the creek is not the best, it's a bit bumpy.
In the end I ended up with 67 miles. For the most part my back wasn't an issue, I did have a few short pains here and there (mainly when standing or looking over my left shoulder), but nothing too bad. It's definitely on the mend.
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